Editing Instant messaging (section)

== Current user base ==
As of March 2022, the most used instant messaging apps and services worldwide include: [[Signal (messaging app)|Signal]] with 100 million, [[Line (software)|Line]] with 217 million, [[Viber]] with 260 million, [[Telegram (software)|Telegram]] with 700 million, [[WeChat]] with 1.2 billion, [[Facebook Messenger]] with 1.3 billion, and [[WhatsApp]] with 2.0 billion users.<ref name="messengerpeople">{{Cite web|url=https://www.messengerpeople.com/global-messenger-usage-statistics/|title=Messaging App Usage Statistics Around the World|date=2020-02-12|website=MessengerPeople|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-01}}</ref> There are 25 countries in the world where WhatsApp messenger is not the market leader in IM, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Philippines, and China.<ref name="messengerpeople" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.hootsuite.com/11-people-join-social-every-second/|title=11 New People Join Social Media Every Second (And Other Impressive Stats)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130041759/http://blog.hootsuite.com/11-people-join-social-every-second/|archive-date=2018-01-30}}</ref>

IM apps have varying levels of adoption in different countries. As of April 2022:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/research/market-research/worldwide-messaging-apps/|title=Most Popular Messaging Apps by Country|website=Similarweb}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://respond.io/blog/top-messaging-apps|title=Most Popular Messaging Apps: Top Messaging Apps 2021|website=Respond.io}}</ref>
*[[WhatsApp]] by [[Meta Platforms]] is the most popular instant messaging network in several countries in South America, Western Europe, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
*[[Facebook Messenger]] by [[Meta Platforms]] is the most popular instant messaging network in North America, Northern Europe, some Central Europe countries, and Oceania.
*[[Telegram (software)|Telegram]] is the most popular instant messaging app in several Eastern Europe countries, and the second preferred option after WhatsApp in several countries in Western Europe, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, Central and South America.
*[[Viber]] by [[Rakuten]] has a strong presence in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia). It is also moderately successful in Philippines and Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.philstar.com/business/2021/01/29/2073733/viber-usage-spikes-pandemic-strikes|title=Viber usage spikes as pandemic strikes|date=29 January 2021|website=[[The Philippine Star]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/12/18/viber-expands-foothold-in-the-philippines-in-2021/|title=Viber expands foothold in the Philippines in 2021|date=18 December 2021 |website=[[BusinessMirror]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://e.vnexpress.net/news/trend/when-chatting-apps-can-be-overwhelming-4504110.html|title=When chatting apps can be overwhelming|website=VnExpress International}}</ref>
*[[Line (software)|Line]] by [[Naver Corporation]] is used widely in some countries in Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Thailand). 
*Instant messaging apps and services that are predominately used in only one country include: [[KakaoTalk]] in South Korea, [[Zalo]] in Vietnam, [[WeChat]] in China, and [[Imo.im|imo]] in Qatar. 
*While not the dominant app for one-to-one messaging in any country, [[Discord (software)|Discord]] is commonly used among online communities due to its ability to support chats with a large amount of members, topic-based channels, and cloud-based storage.